Who should lead and who should not
Apostles and prophets by Jacob Prasch
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Daughters of Zion by James Jacob Prasch
One of the most common questions we get asked about is things concerning women and the role of women in the church. We want to look at this question both from a Christian perspective and from a Jewish perspective. We want to understand it on more than one dimension, so we’ll be looking at some ‘daughters of Zion’. I have to begin with a few things that most people already know. Let’s look first of all at 1 Corinthians.
The women are to keep silent in the churches; they are not permitted to speak, but are to submit themselves, just as the Law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. 1 Cor 14:34,35
Now the Closed Brethren take this very literally, and I am not saying that we shouldn’t take the scriptures literally. But does that mean women should do as the Closed Brethren do? They just sit there, not allowed to speak. Is that what this means? Some people would tell you that it does. I am quite convinced, when we look at this issue and this subject in its greater context, that it does not. But neither does it mean what we are seeing today. What is Paul really trying to say? The other thing that causes problems is 1 Cor 11:3-7.
But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head. For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man.
Paul goes on speaking in verse 9;
For indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake. Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. 1 Cor 11:3-7
I get so many letters and people coming up to me about this all the time, that I figured that maybe we had better just deal with it once and for all!
The Seed of the Woman Crushes the Serpent’s Head
It begins of course, with Genesis 3:15;
‘And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.’ Gen 3:15
‘He shall bruise you on the head, And he shall bruise you on the heel.’ There is an Australian, Kevin Conner, whose early books were quite good but now he has gone into restorationism. He says that this proves that the church will have dominion over Satan, independently of the return of Christ. However, the woman, in its context Eve (Havah), represents Israel before she does does the church. It is not replacementist, the woman is Israel. The scriptures speak the language of incorporation, not replacement. It includes the church by some extension, but it is not in place of Israel. Secondly, it is the seed of the woman who crushes the head of Satan, not the woman. He gets that bit wrong. In Romans 16:20
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.’
Who gives the the woman victory? The Lord. It is not the woman ho crushes. When Jael, as we’ll see in Judges, drives the peg through Sisera’s head, the head gets crushed, but who does it say gave her the victory? It is only when the armies, that the Lord sent, came that it happens. That is Zechariah chapter 12. When Jesus returns, He brings the victory. The idea that the woman is going to get this victory independent of her husband, and she is going to present it to him as his treasure, that is crazy. The church will ultimately be triumphant because of what Christ does. Christ doesn’t come for a triumphant church, He comes with a triumphant church, to set up His millennial kingdom. It is the seed of the woman who bruises the serpent’s head. Now you have to understand the nature of this. I’m very concerned about what the bible teaches about the environment. It says in Revelation; ‘to destroy those who destroy the Earth’ (Rev 11:18). Men will be polluting the earth. God told man from the creation to take care of it. The rape of the environment is sin. On the other hand, I also recognize the strong new age influence in the environmental movement. Much of it comes from these eastern ideas of ‘Mother Earth’. Roman Catholicism, the whole ‘Mother’ ethos. You know, if you say something like ‘Mary had sin’, to a devoted Roman Catholic, that is like insulting their mother. They can’t see what the bible says, that ‘All have sinned’, and Mary says she needs a savior. That is their mother. A bride will always seek to honor her husband, if she is a faithful bride. An unfaithful bride is like Jezebel, who seeks to use her husband to bring honor to herself. In fact a faithful bride honors her husband, and her honor is in him. The honor of the church is in Jesus.
Read Further >>>
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Her Head is Always Covered
Men Who Won’t Take Responsibility
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A woman’s covering by Jacob Prasch
What can woman teach at conferences?
Why every woman needs a Mordecai?
The perfect Bride
Disorder In The Pulpit: The Ordination Of Women
by Jackie Alnor
How has the position of women in the church gone from the virtuous Victorian doormat to the liberated female suffragette? Has the church simply followed the secular spirit of this age? Where is the scriptural balance?
These are questions that face every born-again, Spirit-filled, Christian woman as she tries to be all that she can be for the glory of her Lord, Jesus Christ. In today’s world, there is so much for her to have to sort out to come to the biblical balance. If she truly loves the Lord she does not want to look at scriptures just to find a proof-text for her opinion, but she wants to allow the Bible to form her views regardless of how that might affect her.
In my early Christian walk, I determined to know my limits and to be true to God’s word even if it meant wearing a bonnet and taking up knitting. Thank God it didn’t come down to that! I chose to listen to my teacher, the Holy Spirit, who would lead me into all truth. I wanted the mind of Christ (and still do) on everything. Personal ambition had to be stopped dead in its tracks no matter how many people wanted to elevate me to where the Lord would not send me.
I found out soon on that in order to fit into either of the extremes regarding women in ministry, I would be left with haunting questions from God’s Word concerning my position. It was a “Catch-22” situation. I would be under condemnation either way. If I chose to enter seminary and find a group that would ordain me to pastor a church, I would have a big struggle with what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:34: “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak.” But, if I took that to mean that as a woman I had no right to witness to, reprove, or rebuke a man, I would be under heavy conviction from the words of Jesus who told us to “Go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations. . . teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” Wow, I thought the Great Commission applied to ALL believers.
After much prayer and Bible study and maturing in Christ, I found that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. In the true body of Christ, God’s order must prevail or confusion follows. Women in charge of men is not in keeping with order. Men need to counsel men and women counsel women. When you mix the order, temptation and stumbling blocks enter in. Women must be biblically literate to serve their roles in the church. Nothing’s worse than to go to women’s retreats to focus on making crafts and overcoming PMS. We too need the meat of the word and how it applies to our lives, as well as studying sound doctrine
What’s happened in the church today is the pendulum effect, responding to an error by running to the opposite extreme, thereby creating an equal error. In an age of women’s liberation, attention was drawn to some of the struggles women have in our society. Some of the conditions needed attention, such as women doing equal work as a man and being paid less money. In many churches, women were not allowed to sit with the men and their views were not welcomed. They were expected to leave theological studies to the men and keep to the milk of the Word, leaving the meat for their men to sort out.
When churches tried to correct their error and open ministry to women as they should under biblical guidelines, feminists rose up having selfish ambition, wanting recognition and full authority. To this day ordained women seek titles for themselves, whereas true women of God will serve the church as their spiritual gifts fill the needs that arise. They are under male authority, but the “Christian” suffragette usurps male leadership and seeks equal positions of authority or in extreme cases, an end to male leadership in exchange for a new spiritual matriarchy.
This problem is not restricted to liberal denominations. It may have begun there, but the spirit of the age has no boundaries. The two extremes exist throughout the church and is rampant in Pentecostal/charismatic circles. Two of the largest Pentecostal denominations, the Assemblies of God and the Church of the Foursquare Gospel, have ordained women-pastors from the start. That has resulted in female domination of some congregations which the scriptures clearly forbid.
Bible Order
The Apostle Paul gives us the proper order of the sexes in the eleventh chapter of first Corinthians. And he starts the chapter with the admonition: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. . . remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.” He follows with his argument from nature and the order of the creation of man. These clear words of scripture are twisted by feminists and their defenders to be merely cultural opinions of Paul and that they do not apply to our modern age. Paul may have used the symbol of a head covering that women wore in those days as a type of female submission to male leadership, but that does not nullify the truth of what he was trying to convey.
“But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor. 11:3). Here in one verse is God’s order of the sexes. Women in the church must be under male spiritual authority, which is a place of honor where God can put the woman’s gifts to use in building up the Body of Christ. It is no dishonor to look to men for leadership! Paul reiterates: “For this reason (man created first, woman taken from man) the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels” (vs. 10).
Because of the angels? Now there’s a mystery! And a statement that prevents any honest woman from trying to wriggle out of God’s ordained order of things. We may not know how the angels fit into the “battle of the sexes” but we know they’re watching and are somehow affected by what goes on. This is serious, heavenly, business. And, God’s order of the sexes is His way of building the church and conforming us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. The feminists in the church are in rebellion against God and the angels take notice.
Feminist Scripture Twisting
What may seem so clear to an honest woman of God when she reads scripture, can be turned upside-down on its head by feminists with personal ambition determining their interpretation of God’s holy Word. They will use their favorite proof-texts to justify their position, while totally ignoring the scriptures that condemn their views. And when confronted with those scriptures, they many times resort to attacking the Word of God or the Apostle Paul, calling him a chauvinist that started out as a woman-hater but changed his views towards the end of his ministry.
In an official brochure of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, called “Women in Ordained Leadership Ministry,” the denomination defends their founder, Aimee Semple-McPherson. Their very existence depends upon their justification since without her they would not exist. “Sister McPherson based her right to preach on the prophecy of Joel 2:28-29 and the example of other Bible women,” and they conclude: “This text’s encouragement of women to minister has served as a biblical basis for our own (and many other) denominations to include, rather than exclude, women from leadership ministry.” But does this Old Testament passage in Joel cancel out the clear verses regarding authority in the church? “. . . I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. . . And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” This does not even touch the subject of leadership in the church.
Another favorite passage from such ambitious women is Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Again, where do they get their assignment to lead men in the church from this? To say this verse gives them their divine orders to undermine God’s male leadership is to pervert God’s Word. Just because we are one in Christ, does not mean that we fail to recognize the order of creation. Remember the angels?
The verses the liberal theologians cite to defend their unbiblical position are the same ones that demonstrate the need for women to participate in the ministry of the church under male leadership. These verses are powerful against the opposite extreme of women being seen as second class heavenly citizens.
Jacob Prasch has pointed out that since the Garden of Eden women have been more sensitive to the evil spiritual realm than men. And they are equally more sensitive than men to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. Because of their “woman’s intuition” as some would call it, they need good biblical grounding and the help of man’s more cautious and strong emotional natures to help sort out the source of their inspiration. A woman with no male authority is more vulnerable to deceiving spirits due to her own tendencies toward emotionalism
Testing Of The Fruit
The feminist movement in our age has set about to destroy and pervert man’s natural inclination to pamper and protect women. The same attack against our God-given natures is being waged by the homosexual lobbies who often team up with the feminists (both in & out of the church) in a conspiracy to eradicate God-given norms of order of the sexes.
The result is a desensitizing of the consciousness of the masses of people to where they can no longer see clearly how perverted their world-view has become. What an attack on our male-female relationships! The devil has been successful in corrupting our roles in society and he is succeeding in doing the same in the church.
The fruit is men have less and less respect for ladies. Rare now is a man who opens the car door for his date or pays the tab without expecting something in return. Women compete with their husbands instead of supporting them in their work. Women all over are suffering from a disaster that they created by listening to the devil via masculine feminists and wonder why they are treated roughly and never pampered.
The fruit in some denominations is weak men and power hungry women who want to climb the corporate church ladder to success and serve on the boards of their denominations and give a boost to other “marginalized” persons such as homosexuals, lesbians, and trans-gendered perverts.
A prime example of this sort of perversity gaining ground in the church is the ministry of Tony Campolo. Campolo is one of Bill Clinton’s spiritual advisors. He is on the faculty of Eastern College in Pennsylvania, a Christian liberal arts college and he is an ordained American Baptist minister. His wife, Peggy Campolo, is an advocate for the acceptance of homosexual marriage and is a frequent key-note speaker at “Christian” homosexual rallies. She wrote the forward to a book, “From Wounded Hearts,” an anthology written by many gay “Christians” sharing their struggle for acceptance within the church of Jesus Christ. Of course, repentance for their sin of homosexuality will not be found in any of the testimonies.
Even though her husband does not agree with her on the subject of accepting homosexual marriage unions, her perverse world-view has colored his to the point where he, too, will twist the clear passages against homosexuality to say something they don’t say. “There is no question but when Christ came and when Peter preached, purity codes were set aside,” Tony Campolo said at the North Park College Chapel on February 29. 1996, in reference to passages in the 18th and 20th chapters of Leviticus. “We no longer live kosher like our orthodox Jewish friends do. Kosher law, purity laws have been set aside. And those who are scholars, even the most conservative scholars, will argue with you that the statements in Leviticus that have to do with homosexuality fall into the purity code category. As a matter of fact it comes right after the passage that says that to touch the skin of a dead pig is an abomination to God, which puts the whole Super Bowl into question.”
So, now according to Campolo, we can accept homosexuality same as we can now eat sausage or play football. What a perversion of the Word. In reading the Leviticus passages it is very obvious that eating pork and committing homosexual acts are viewed differently by God. The result of touching an unclean animal is that it left you ceremonially unclean until morning after washing with water. On the other hand, homosexual perversion resulted in being cut off from God’s people and the death penalty would apply (see Lev. 20:13). If this is merely a “purity law” that no longer applies, then adultery is now OK as well since that is addressed in Lev. 20:10. Beastiality is now clean too since that is addressed in Lev. 20:16.
But, during that same interview Peggy Campolo revealed the source of her justification for promoting the homosexual agenda. In her argument that the first chapter of Romans does not refer to the practice of homosexuality, but merely deals with the use of sexual orgies in the worship ceremonies to Aphrodite, she says: “Some people…say that those who believe as I do about Romans one are stretching the passage to agree with our own a priori beliefs. They say it is arrogant to declare that 19 hundred years of church history and tradition are in error. I would remind these people that all those years of church tradition supported an interpretation of Timothy 2:11 and 12 that disallowed women from church leadership. We only know what the church fathers said because those who might have been the church mothers had no voice.”
Now this comes from a lady who is a preacher’s kid but according to her own testimony did not come to the Lord until she discovered that Jesus lives in all people, Christian and non-Christian alike, and she discovered this God within while comforting a lady on her death bed. The Bible verse that comes to mind when reading Peggy Campolo’s words is: “For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:6-7). We’ll never know what Tony Campolo would be today had he not yoked himself to an imposter.
The power struggle in the church over authority is obviously the same fleshly struggle that goes on in the world. But when the church is worldly it’s bound to have worldly problems.
A couple of decades ago, before I was saved, I used to be a police dispatcher. In the 1970s, feminists were just beginning to assert themselves onto the police force in the manner of Cagney & Lacy. The days of the Police Woman, Angie Dickinson (Sgt. Pepper) were over. Women now wanted to do patrol duty and not merely work undercover in the Vice Squad. Police women historically were needed, though they used to be called “matrons” to deal with female convicts for strip searches and such. Then they were utilized in crime investigations as shills and decoys with heavy armed back-up. They were qualified also as radio dispatchers and there was much work they could do in the police station. But out on patrol? Wouldn’t they be vulnerable there?
The answer to that is a definite Yes! Just as if women were to be put in the front-lines of combat duty. I had many conversations with policemen about it and to a man they felt unsafe with a female partner in the field. One told me that it added an extra burden in that he felt that he not only had to watch his own back but he had to protect her as well. With a fellow man by his side they were expected to watch each others backs and served as a safety net. The inborn protective instinct God gave men for us ladies prevented the policeman from ignoring his partner’s gender. That would be totally against nature.
As hard as it is on a man’s ego to take orders from women in the case of police officers (until they have been desensitized) it is unnatural and for a Spirit-filled man of God, impossible to submit to female authority in the church. To overcompensate for this, the female pastor will falsely attribute this to chauvinism and react by taking on male characteristics on herself and lose her own precious femininity
And in the denominations when a female replaces a male pastor, a great percentage of the members are lost and the women pastors simply lie to themselves thinking the scattered sheep are just chauvinists. They have blinded themselves to the damage they inflict upon these congregations. They believe a lie and then base their lives and ministry upon the lie. The female pastors try to act tough to overcome their own femininity. This is an abomination to the Lord.
One United Methodist leader, who serves on a New Jersey denominational board, told me in an interview that his denomination let the camel’s nose in the tent by allowing female pastors and now they are reaping the whirlwind with homosexual lobbies wanting their place in the sun. The strength of the homo-feminist lobbies in various mainline denominations has caused an exodus of good bible-centered male leaders out of their churches. They are then replaced by women pastors and the flocks are scattered. The conservative remnant loses ground every year at their annual conventions as their votes for moral decency lose more and more ground. Eventually the religious liberals take over and their denominations apostacize. This can be seen to the extreme in denominations such as the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the United Church of Canada who openly ordain homosexuals. This did not happen overnight. The process is long and painful for the men who once headed up these groups.
This evil is so obvious to true born-again believers (unless they have quenched the Holy Spirit’s warnings) that some have overreacted and have closed all doors of ministry to women except for teaching children and having craft fairs. This is an equal insult to the Lord who has poured out His Spirit on women as well as men. We must have the proper biblical balance or we cannot function properly as the Body of Christ..
And just as we are joint-heirs in Christ we are equal in the eyes of God. Jesus loves me too. His warning to husbands in treating their wives right is a principle that no doubt applies to men’s treatment of women in the church as well. “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered” (1 Pet. 3:7).
To suppress a woman from speaking her view on spiritual matters is tantamount to quenching the Holy Spirit. Especially if she is given a word of knowledge, word of wisdom, or word of prophecy. What if she has a gift of discerning of spirits and a legion enters the assembly? Is she supposed to sit there and shut up? Of course not! She must respect order and go to the man in authority or have her husband bring it to his attention.
We women must look to strong Christian men for leadership. If we cannot find such a man (they are scarce nowadays) we can pray that God would raise some up. We can raise our sons to respect women and be bold in their faith. Teaching them to study the word of God as Lois & Eunice did, we too can raise Timothys. The hand that rocks the cradle, and all that! When the Lord brings such a leader into our lives, either a pastor or a husband or both, we can literally team up with them and be willing to help out under their authority and make a difference for God’s kingdom in partnership, not striking out on our own. Those who do so get into trouble.
In a prophetic sense, what is happening today in both the nation and the church is a judgment from God. Consider God’s rebuke of the root of the tree, knowing that He deals likewise with the grafted branches: “For Jerusalem stumbled, And Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory. The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom: They do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves. . . .As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths” (Isaiah 3:8,9,12)
by Susan Conway and Sarah Leslie Courtesy of Discernment Ministries
It sometimes feels awkward to be a woman involved in discernment ministry. It seems like exercising discernment should be the duty of pastors. But in this day and age everyone must exercise discernment, if we are truly following Jesus and His Word.
Our discernment work began nearly three decades ago when we simply tried to understand what was coming into our homes and churches.
We are two oddballs – women who stay at home and take care of our families, who also happen to spend our “free” time doing historical and theological research. It didn’t start out that way. We both went to college and our education was to influence us for years to come. Sue majored in history, and then got a master’s degree in education in an experimental program that trained her in how to be a change agent.
Sarah majored in elementary education, where she was trained as a facilitator, and then went on to get a master’s degree in counseling. In the 1970s, Sue went on to become a missionary overseas in Africa and Sarah set up a private counseling practice. Even at this time, both of us knew that something was wrong, and we began to question things.
In the early 1980s changes in American culture began to impact our families in troubling ways. We noticed the numbing, deadening influence of entertainment. Another troubling sign was the influx of occult toys and videos for children. In order to protect our children we had to learn to discern pagan signs and symbols and keep them out of our homes. And we avoided entertainment-style learning methods. Then we began to see families begin to disintegrate under the pressures of modern life – the rising divorce rates, the feminist movement, the rush for riches. Our families made hard decisions to live simply without lots of extra material goods so that we could stay home and be with our children. Because of our backgrounds, both of us began paying attention to education reform, and we recognized that the plans, programs and methods were not Christian. So we made the decision to homeschool our children.
We also noticed as new things came into the evangelical world, and not always for the better. Both of us went through trying times in churches that began to enthusiastically embrace new theologies and new methods. Perhaps it was because we were young mothers that we first became concerned about the new styles of doing “business” as a church that seemed onerous and burdensome, particularly on young families. We were already up to our eyeballs in diapers and playdough. We didn’t need extra programs.
We were utterly incapable of performing to purpose-driven “results,” much less devising them for others to be implementing. It was all we could do to just snatch a few winks of sleep once in awhile. The new requirements for being “effective” and “successful” and becoming great leaders/influencers were taking their toll on our husbands, too.
Over the ensuing years Sarah received a heavy dose of Dominionist teachings. Sue was exposed to the leadership and purpose-driven models. By the late 1980s we knew that something had gone terribly wrong with our Christian walk. We were constantly being told that we needed to have new methods, new practices, new beliefs and new doctrines. But when we tried to incorporate these new things into our faith, it resulted in losing Jesus as our first love. It stole our joy. It caused turmoil and conflict. And it took us away from the simplicity of the Gospel. We both raised questions. Why was this new teaching coming into the churches? Where did it come from? What was behind it?
This questioning led us on a relentless search, first to examine our Christian walk, then to examine the truths of Christianity and Jesus, and then to try to find out why these new methods, practices, teachings could so seriously erode the Truth of the Gospel of Salvation. It seemed like another gospel. The Lord had uniquely gifted both of us with a passion for doing historical research so we began to dig. The more we dug, the worse things looked. What on the surface might appear like a tasty nugget of new doctrine or
a “fun” activity isn’t new at all! We learned that many of these ideas, philosophies, theologies and doctrines actually had roots in the occult, especially by way of the social sciences and psychology. By this time, we realized that our background and training, which we had left far behind, had uniquely qualified us to understand the rising heresies. We have learned a lot over the years, and we are still learning. We have a burden to warn others. And the Lord has permitted us to do this in amazing ways in this era of technology. Some of our research is posted on the Herescope blog, a project of Discernment Ministries at http://www.herescope.com. We are grateful for the many other researchers with whom we work who contribute time, materials, advice, insight, research, encouragement and sustenance.
As wives and mothers, we recognize that we approach discernment research differently from men. First of all, we are “keepers at home” (Titus 2:6), and that must be a priority for how we spend our time. Second, the Word of God must be the final authority in all that we say, do and believe. Third, we must be in submission to our husbands. And fourth, we pray daily that the Lord would continue to break our hearts over the terrible heresies in our midst. We do not ever want to grow callous or hard-hearted.Perhaps it is because we are women at home that we see things differently from men. Men often design big plans and programs that seem sound from an engineering or business point of view. But we women often see the REAL consequences of these schemes, measured in the damaging consequences to the lives of those among us who are the most weak, feeble, infirm, handicapped, young or old. When an ambitious program lacks compassion and mercy, it takes its toll on the weakest among us.
Each day we are aware of 1 Timothy 3, which says in the “last days perilous times shall come” which is evidenced by, among other things, “without natural affection” (vs. 3). Women who follow after apostasy and false teachings are prone to behaviors that are “without natural affection” – especially in how they treat their children and their husbands. The Old Testament prophets describe a particular downhill course of degradation in which women who follow after idolatry become lascivious, immodest and promiscuous – behaviors which can have terrible consequences on marriages and children.
2 Timothy 3:6 warns that those who have a “form of godliness” are of the “sort” who “creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.” In our days of feminism, it isn’t popular to admit that women can be more gullible, naïve and vulnerable than men when it comes to deceptive teachings. But it is a biblical fact that goes back to the Garden of Eden.
How much more, then, should we women take to heart 1 Peter 4:7 – “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” Many women have trouble being “sober-minded,” but that is indeed how the Scriptures tell us to live.
As “keepers at home” we mothers are uniquely positioned to be the day-to-day “guards” for what comes into the home. Women serve their family well, who protect their children from occult toys and books, rock music, TV shows, videos, Internet, cell phones, and all other forms of questionable pastimes and entertainment. But in these perilous times, even that is not enough. There is a new influx of false doctrines and heresies into the home via evangelical books, music, media and influences – some especially targeting teens through sophisticated marketing techniques. It is no longer safe to assume that the lyrics to Christian rock music are truly biblical. We can no longer trust the writings or materials of respected evangelical leaders. We have reached the point where evangelical bookstore shelves are filled with the new heresies. Many homeschool curriculums (and leaders) teach Dominionist doctrines. And most so-called Christian television programming is full of Latter Rain and New Age heresies.
We are often asked for help with discernment research. Many Christians in these last days are floundering around in the water, unable to swim, grasping for lifesavers and assistance in the treacherous waters of heresy. We have a simple answer: READ YOUR BIBLES! Be filled with the Spirit. Walk in obedience to the Lord. And begin to exercise discernment.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things,
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” (1 Timothy 4:1-3)
